Samsung GALAXY Note Preview

Introduction:

Well, it's finally here – the Samsung GALAXY Note – the largest “smartphone” ever created. If you wonder why we placed “smartphone” in inverted commas, that's because this thing is so big that it's blurring the lines between being a phone and a tablet. Really, when you look at it, the Galaxy Note can hardly be classified as a normal smartphone. On the other hand, it feels a bit too small to be considered a normal tablet. This device has found itself somewhere in between. And naturally, the first question that comes to our mind right now is: Is there a place for such a device on the market?

But we never jump to conclusions without first having to play with the actual handset. Now that the Samsung GALAXY Note is right here, in our hands, we do have a few things to say about it. Being pretty impressive in terms of specs, same as any other high-end Android smartphone, doesn't the Galaxy Note mark the spot where big becomes too big? Read on to find out!

Design:

So, um... what should we say? The Samsung GALAXY Note is one monster of a phone! It is gigantic, and it doesn't feel like anything you've used before. And if you're the type of person who'd say that the Galaxy S II is just too big, then wait until you see this guy. Don't think you'll be able to use it just like you use your typical smartphone – you can't fit the Galaxy Note comfortably in your pocket. Well, you can carry it in your pocket, but don't try to sit while it's in there. It's by no means heavy, but it is too cumbersome to handle normally. This “phone” is designed for the biggest of hands, but we don't believe that even such hands will find it okay.


The Samsung GALAXY Note is made of plastics, but it doesn't feel cheap at all. The device is solid, and even the capacitive stylus stays very firmly in its spot, and requires a bit of force to be removed. No wiggle whatsoever.

Now, let's turn our attention to the gargantuan 5.3” display of the Galaxy Note. It is, of course, of the capacitive type and utilizes the Super AMOLED technology, which translates into rich colors, deep contrast levels and wide viewing angles. Having so much real estate however, means that screen resolution should also be abundant, in order to keep a respectful pixel density. This is one are where the Galaxy Note performs admirably, having an 800x1280 pixel res, which translates into 285 ppi. We're happy to say that everything on the screen is very clear easily readable.



All the keys around the device are comfortable to press, while the special capacitive stylus is positioned at the bottom of the device. As we said, it requires a bit of force to have it removed, but that's fine, as it wouldn't have been better if it was wiggling. The stylus itself is long enough, and more importantly – isn't too thin, so overall we are happy with its design.

Interface and Functionality:

The Samsung GALAXY Note runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which is of course disguised by the custom TouchWiz user interface. It is nice that TouchWiz has been tweaked for the Note in a number of ways, so that it better fits the 5.3” realities. For example, the icon grid now allows for five, instead of four icons on a row.


In addition to all the standard Android and TouchWiz stuff, however, Samsung has cooked some apps especially for the Galaxy Note and its stylus. This is to be expected with a device, centered around the experience of note-taking via a digital pen. S Memo is the special notes app, which will allow you to leverage the possibilities of the included stylus. It features some nice options such as brush type, thickness and color. You can also insert text using the on-screen QWERTY keyboard. The app is pretty decent, and it isn't hard to use, but we found the stylus to be a bit inaccurate, thus making the note-taking experience a bit of a hassle. We hope this is just an issue with out prototype unit. You can also take screenshot notes by pressing the key that is on the stylus and holding it on the screen for a couple of seconds.


Another new app is S Planner, which is here to substitute your typical calendar app. Basically, S Planner is just a facelifted calendar, having a more professional feel.


Don't be fooled by the presence of the S Choice app – it's just a renamed Samsung Apps. Still, you do get the Photo Editor app, which allows you to tweak your photos and images, and also draw with the stylus on top of them. It's not much, but at least it comes for free.

There have been no changes made to the Contacts and Messaging apps to differentiate the Galaxy Note from other TouchWiz devices. Speaking of messaging, it's interesting to comment on the typing experience of the Note. First off, the portrait QWERTY is a nightmare. You can't hold the handset comfortably between your hands and type normally on that keyboard. Switching to landscape takes care of the problem for the most part, although there's still just a little bit of that feeling of inconvenience when reaching for the letters in the center.

So, browsing on a 5.3” screen with a resolution of 800x1280 should be pretty cool, right? Well, it is, but it's just marginally better than browsing on a 4.3” screen. We weren't blown away by any means. Samsung says that the Galaxy Note minimizes the need of scrolling, but rest assured, there's nothing big in this – you'll still have to scroll, and more importantly, you'll still have to zoom in, in order to make the text comfortably readable. Flash Player support is, of course, available, and works flawlessly. One thing we don't like about Samsung's Android browser is that it doesn't enable the pan function while doing pinch-to-zoom.


The Samsung GALAXY Note supports 4G HSPA+ at up to 21 Mbit/s on the downlink, as well as 4G LTE. Of course, your carrier will have to offer such a network, in order to use LTE data speeds. As of this writing, Samsung has not yet unveiled plans to bring the Galaxy Note Stateside.

There's an 8MP camera employed by the Samsung GALAXY Note, coupled with a single LED flash. As usual, we took a bunch of samples for you to check out, but wouldn't comment on their quality yet. Not until we have a final unit on our hands. The Note allows you to record up to 1080p videos at 29 fps.

As you might guess, one area where the Galaxy Note is very strong is multimedia consumption. Naturally, watching movies on the big 5.3” Super AMOLED screen is much better than doing it on a 4” one, for example. The same goes for game-playing – as the images are larger, there's just less strain on your eyes.

Expectations:

The Samsung GALAXY Note left us with a mixed bag of feelings. The smartphone is plenty fast, and offers all that users currently demand from their most personal gadgets, but its size... we think it's more of a downside than anything else.

The Galaxy Note feels like it doesn't belong to this market, at least not now. With only marginal benefits in areas such as web browsing, we only see this handset excel in the fields of video and gaming. As for note-taking using the stylus, if this is exactly the thing that turns you on, well, we guess you'll like the Note, but if you don't see it as such a major benefit, we think there's not much use in it. Of course, we won't draw a final conclusion yet, not until we get to play with a final unit, but as of right now, the Galaxy Note seems like a niche product at best, and a pretty tight niche this is.

Samsung GALAXY Note Video Preview: